Rick EpsteinIf your tap water isn't tasty, you might want to buy it in Frenchtown at Harrison and Twelfth streets. The ample water supply there is also used to heat and cool the building, which is a former movie theater. That's Anthony De Sapio, site manager.

Rick EpsteinAnthony DeSapio pays a visit to some of the low-maintenance equipment that heats and cools the Barn office building.

FRENCHTOWN — In 1939 when the Barn Theater was being built, well-diggers struck water that flowed voluntarily to the surface and continues flowing to this day. For the next 50 years, the excess water came out of a metal pipe where it could be drunk or jugged by anyone who wanted it before it spilled into a ditch beside upper Twelfth Street.

The water was used to air condition the theater — until it showed its last movie in 1989 (“When Harry Met Sally”). Then an entrepreneur, who was trying in vain to get borough approval to turn the empty theater into a Country & Western dance hall, set up a coin-operated apparatus near the roadside to sell the water.

The De Sapio family of Kingwood Township bought the property in 1996 and remodeled it as office space, installing the borough’s first elevator to improve access to Gaetano De Sapio’s law offices in the second story. Space downstairs has been variously occupied by a dancing school, insurance offices, a hair salon, a Montessori school and more.

Right from the start, the De Sapios used the ever-flowing water supply to heat and cool the building. Geothermal heating and cooling is based on the fact that the underground water is 55 degrees year-round, which is relatively warm in winter and relatively cool in summer. Electrical equipment augments that warmth or coolness to keep the inside of the building comfortable.

According to site manager Anthony De Sapio, De Sapio Construction of Kingwood Township has built several other geothermal buildings — the Riegel Federal Credit Union offices in Holland Township; the office building at 270 S. Main St. in Raritan Township; and the residence of Anthony’s brother Martin near Baptistown.

Anthony says that the equipment is more expensive than conventional heating and cooling hardware, and you need lots of water. These three buildings have multiple wells, including wells for putting the water back into the aquifer. But the Frenchtown well, which sends up about 120 gallons per minute, suffices for the Barn office building. The De Sapios considered using geothermal energy when they built senior citizen apartments on the property several years ago, but decided the water supply was not quite sufficient, Anthony said.

The De Sapios decided to keep selling the water and re-routed it and mounted a new vending setup on the side of the building, with free samples available from a couple of drinking fountains.

Anthony says the purity of the water is tested by an independent lab quarterly and the results are sent to county and state health authorities. Although there have been no problems with bacteria, says Anthony, the water is also treated with ultraviolet light.
He estimates that annual sales amount to about 3,000 gallons.

The recent dismantling of the vending machinery may have caused passers-by to wonder if the De Sapios were going out of the water business. But now new equipment is in place. Anthony explains, “In the past year regulations for the sale of water have changed.” Instead of dispensing the water through hoses handled by the customer, the water is poured from a “confined cabinet.”

Furthermore, the hoses tended to freeze in the winter. Now the water comes from inside the building, so that won’t be a problem.

Another refinement is the way the water is meted out. Before, a buyer received a timed flow, which could be more or less than a gallon, depending on the water pressure. Now the water is dispensed by volume.

The water had cost 20 cents a gallon; the more-expensive equipment necessitates a new price, says Anthony — 50 cents a gallon or $2 for five gallons.